Messages

251

General Mach Discussion / Re: Turn feedrate override buttons

« on: June 08, 2008, 10:55:20 PM »

I noticed the exact same thing, The over ride buttons for the spindle speed work but the feed rate over ride does nothing

252

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach3 crashes

« on: May 12, 2008, 07:48:14 PM »

I have been using the turn wizards and the thread mill wizard daily with no problems

253

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can Mch run more 'professional' machine

« on: May 12, 2008, 06:55:34 PM »

Here are a few pics of my 3hp bport conversion from about 4 years ago , i am running reliant 690 brush type dc servos with 500 count encoders (new ebay 3 for $500) rated 1/2 hp . I ended up using 4 in total, one on both the quill and knee , ususaly unplug the knee when I need to plug in the rotary table. Still need to finish a few gaurds and anodize the motor mounts.









Here is a pic of the MHP lathe all finished up with the new ac servos from automation direct




For refrence on motor sizing , I have a 20hp vertical bed mill 20"x40"x20" travel  15"x48" table with 1kw yaskawa drives and motors on x+y and 1.4kw on z axis and its capable of 800+IPM

254

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can Mch run more 'professional' machine

« on: May 12, 2008, 06:07:04 PM »

be still my heart, did I read rigid tapping!

Thanks again for all your help , I still havent powered up the tool changer yet, I keep going back over the ladder and macro to insuire I havent missed anything. I do some rapid prototyping and had a customer drop a huge amount of work in my lap last week so I will be buried for about a month.

255

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can Mch run more 'professional' machine

« on: May 10, 2008, 10:10:43 PM »

256

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can Mch run more 'professional' machine

« on: May 10, 2008, 10:09:20 PM »

I am running a 9x49 bridgeport clone with no problem as well as my most recent conversion a 30 hp lathe . The software isnt the limiting factor on machine size and speed , its a matter of choosing the proper drives and motors for your application.  AutomationDirect as well as yaskawa, mitsubishi, allen bradley etc have ac servo motors and drives cabaple of positioning any load you can imagine
I have used quite a few of the commonly avail software packages , break out boards and drives over the past ten years and Mach is by far the easiest to configure with all the bells and whistles to match any possible configuration.

The only thing missing I would like is a qaudreture encoder input for rigid tapping and spindle indexing on the mill, Would also be nice to be able to use the live tooling on my new lathe also



For my 30hp lathe I used the 2kw brushless ac servos and matching drives from automation direct and am able to move the saddle/cross-slide/ tool changer assembly at 800IPM , over 600lb assembly.

The support avail is also above and beyond , Hood has gone way far out of his way to answer all my questons no matter how stupid and has helped me get the 12 station tool changer running. You wont find a better group of guys to help you out when a question arises.

257

General Mach Discussion / Re: changing kernel speed and maximizing travel speeds ?

« on: May 04, 2008, 03:41:32 PM »

yep HOOD you nailed it on the encoder counts and ratio, I am headed out now to try the electronic gearing , I think I am on the smooth stepper list but am probably pretty far down on the list and threading is very important to me as I am in the sound suppressor business. Thanks for all your help

258

General Mach Discussion / Re: pins 2-9 as inputs ?

« on: May 03, 2008, 09:03:35 PM »

It is LPT2 that I am trying to use pins 2-9 as inputs on , I have the jumper on the breakout board set in the proper position for 2-9 to be used as inputs  and i have the proper ports and pins set on the inputs dialogue box  but mach still doesnt recognize them as inputs  , When I run the little diagnostics utility it states that home and limit switches are not on pins 10-13 . When I move them to 10-13 or 15 they work fine but are not recognized on 2-9 even though all the settings are correct. Even with the limits and homes moved to 10-13 and 15 I am still 4 inputs short , must be something simple I am overlooking
Is it possible the printer port (lpt2) in my computer may not allow 2-9 as inputs?

259

General Mach Discussion / pins 2-9 as inputs ?

« on: May 03, 2008, 08:14:42 PM »

In ports and pins there is an option (check box) to use pins 2-9 as inputs but on the "inputs" dialogue box  it says only pins 10-13 and 15 may be used as inputs. Which is correct?

 I am Using the basic breakout board from cnc4pc with the jumper choosing pins 2-9 as inputs for my limits and home switch inputs but mach doesnt seem to recognize any inputs on 2-9 , I can move the switches over to the std inputs 10-13 and 15 and they work fine but I still need 4 additional inputs for cycle start, pause etc .

Whats the method for using 2-9 as inputs?

260

General Mach Discussion / changing kernel speed and maximizing travel speeds ?

« on: May 03, 2008, 07:32:33 PM »

I am finishing up my large (30hp) cnc lahe retrofit and I have a few questions about tunning for the highest possible rapids on the x and z axis with Mach . I am using 2kw, 3 phase brushless AC servo motors and matching drives from Automation Direct. Doing the math with their servo-sizer software my setup should be cabaple of rapids in excess of 1000 IPM  . Using the out put signal from another machine with Yaskawa PLC I was able to easily run the x and z axis at a sustained 800 IPM with no problem , motors and drives never got above room temp

I would like to use mach3 with this machine , I have installed the c11 breakout board from cnc4pc and mach 3 , the x axis requires 90k pulse per inch and the z requires 50k pulses per inch . With the kernel speed set at 45k hz the maximum IPM that can be input x axis is 30 and the max for z that can be input is 52 IPM . The software will not allow me to type in a larger value. The machine seems to run fine at these speeds but is painfully slow. If I change the kernel speed to a higher value I can then change the IPM in motor setup to a higher value but when I try to move the machine at anything over aprox 65 IPM the motors run in pulses , pause and then run , stopping and starting at regular intervals. The motors are not stalling , its as if the drives are receiveing the steps in burst with a pause in between.

What do I need to adjust or experiment with to get rapids of at least  400IPM? Could this be an issue with the computer or memory? its a p4 2.6 ghz